Our View: Focusing on Big Bird misses a trillion-ton Snuffleupagus

Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have probably scared a lot of children by bringing Sesame Street's Big Bird into the past week's campaigning. For both, it's a case of needlessly ruffling feathers.

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The Daily Telegram - Adrian, MI

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Posted Oct. 10, 2012 at 10:01 AM

Posted Oct. 10, 2012 at 10:01 AM

Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have probably scared a lot of children by bringing Sesame Street's Big Bird into the past week's campaigning. For both, it's a case of needlessly ruffling feathers.

Romney mentioned the TV character during Wednesday's debate as an example of programming the federal government can't afford to fund if it needs to "borrow money from China to pay for it." President Obama shot back with a TV ad accusing the Republican of putting children's favorite fowl under the budget ax while not caring about wrongdoers on Wall Street. Both candidates are focusing on Big Bird and missing the nation's trillion-ton Snuffleupagus problems.

Romney's example of government reduction was colorful but mostly symbolic. Sesame Workshop reports only about 8 percent of its $130 million budget — or about $10.4 million — comes from federal funding. If it were the number for a particular day's show, it would be the number one one-hundredth of one percent because that's its share of the $1.1 trillion annual deficit. That isn't chicken feed, but even the entire $445 million that the federal government spent on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2012 amounts to less than one-eighth of the $4 billion in red ink the federal government adds to the debt each and every single day.

Obama's reaction ad, however, was at least as bad by implying that Romney seeks to get rid of Sesame Street rather than the villains of Wall Street. For one thing, Sesame Workshop obtains more than 90 percent of its funding from private sources. Officials have made it clear that Big Bird is in no danger, even if all federal funding were cut. For another thing, any responsibility for prosecuting Wall Street bankers has rested for four years with Obama's Justice Department. If officials at Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers or other investment firms are not held accountable for the subprime mortgage crisis or other problems, the present administration has no one to blame but itself.

Fortunately, Big Bird's friends have told both candidates to leave them out of the partisan grouchiness. PBS stated after the debate that it was "very disappointed" that it "became a political target in the Presidential debate." The Sesame Workshop, meanwhile, requested Tuesday that Obama remove his ad. "We have approved no campaign ads," it stated, "and, as is our general practice, have requested that both campaigns remove Sesame Street characters and trademarks from their campaign materials."

High unemployment, the future solvency of Medicare and Social Security, rising health costs, federal spending of trillions — not millions — and high gasoline costs. These are among the much larger problems the candidates should spend their time explaining how to fix. Focusing on Big Bird avoids the truly big issues, and that shouldn't fly.